Big Crowds For Art

Visitors waiting to ride down Carsten Höller’s
102-foot slide last year at the New Museum in New York

Huge lines, Big crowds and Mini stampedes to get a look at the "good stuff". A trip to a major museum feels like more like a black Friday sale at Target than an educational time at a museum. This is happening so much that a retrospective at London's Tate Modern in 2010-2011 made a few complaints on the museum's message board.  “A good exhibition sadly marred by the gross overcrowding,” read a typical response. “I shuffled along with so many others struggling to see past the backs of so many heads.” These many reaction's of many anger visitors led one art critic to name the phenomenon "gallery rage" not might be as catchy as road rage but this may endemic to our times.

But there is good news, and it’s twofold: attendance numbers at major exhibitions reveal no sign of flagging (even in a poor economy and even with higher entry fees) and museums are increasingly sensitive to visitors’ needs. Indeed, many devote serious time and personnel to forestalling meltdowns in their halls of culture

The pictures that I took on my trip to St.Thomas are truly beautiful and they might be on the site in a few days at most a week. But it was a really great trip and I hope to visit that Island again.